VAGARY:

Always read the meter dials from the right to the left. This procedure is much easier, especially if any of
the dial hands are near the zero mark. If the meter has two dials, and one is smaller than the other, it is
not imperative to read the smaller dial since it only registers a small amount. Read the dial at the right first.
As the dial turns clockwise, always record the figure the pointer has just passed. Read the next dial to the
left and record the figure it has just passed. Continue recording the figures on the dials from right to left.
When finished, mark off the number of units recorded. Dials on water and gas meters usually indicate the
amount each dial records.
When you have finished reading the meter, mark off-

The author's overall concern is with describing the process researchers are following to identify the genes
responsible for preventing cell death and with the direction (and goals) of current research based on their
findings. Of the five choices, choice B. best expresses the gist of the discussion. enterprise was prepared
for privatization and which form was most suitable for it. Slow privatization, some claim, is the only way to
establish true private ownership, because only those who must pay for enterprise-ownership rights will be
engaged in its management. But this method would only prolong the core problems of inefficiency and
misallocation of labor and capital, and hence either of two approaches to rapid privatization is preferable.
Under one such approach, shares of an enterprise would be distributed among its employees, who would
become its owners. This socialist reform method is deeply flawed; it discriminates in favor of workers who
happen to be employed by modern, efficient enterprises, and it jeopardizes workers' property by requiring
them to invest in the same enterprise in which they are employed, rather than diversifying their
investments. The better approach involves distribution of enterprise shares, free of charge, among all the
people by means of vouchers-a kind of investment money. Some critics charge that voucher holders
would not be interested in how their enterprises are managed-as may be true of small corporate
shareholders in capitalist countries who pay little attention to their investments until the corporation's
profits wane, at which time they rush to sell their securities. But while the resulting fall in stock prices can
be perilous for the corporation, this very pressure is what drives private firms toward efficiency and
profitability. Other detractors predict that most people will sell their vouchers to foreign capitalists.
However, these skeptics ignore the capacity of individuals to compare the future flow of income secured
by a voucher to the benefits of immediate consumption. Moreover, even if an individual should decide to
sell, the aim of voucher privatization is to secure equality not of property but of opportunity.
Which of the following would the author probably agree is the LEAST desirable outcome of economic
reform in formerly Communist countries?

CURSIVE:

One of the most intriguing stories of the Russian Revolution concerns the identity of Anastasia, the
youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas II. During his reign over Russia, the Czar had planned to revoke
many of the harsh laws established by previous czars. Some workers and peasants, however, clamored
for more rapid social reform. In 1918 a group of these people, known as Bolsheviks, overthrew the
government. On July 17 or 18, they murdered the Czar and what was thought to be his entire family.
Although witnesses vouched that all the members of the Czar's family had been executed, there were
rumors suggesting that Anastasia had survived. Over the years, a number of women claimed to be Grand
Duchess AnastasiA. Perhaps the best -known claimant was Anastasia Tschaikovsky, who was also
known as Anna Anderson. In 1920, eighteen months after the Czar's execution, this terrified young
woman was rescued from drowning in a Berlin river. She spent two years in a hospital, where she
attempted to reclaim her health and shattered mind. The doctors and nurses thought that she resembled
Anastasia and questioned heer about her background. She disclaimed any connection with the Czar's
family. Eight years later, though, she claimed that she was AnastasiA. She said that she had been
rescued by two Russian soldiers after the Czar and the rest of her family had been killed. Two brothers
named Tschaikovsky had carried her into RomaniA. She had married one of the brothers, who had taken
her to Berlin and left her there, penniless and without a vocation. Unable to invoke the aid of her mother's
family in Germany, she had tried to drown herself. During the next few years, scores of the Czar's
relatives, exservants, and acquaintances interviewed her. Many of these people said that her looks and
mannerisms were evocative of the Anastasia that they had known. Her grandmother and other relatives
denied that she was the real Anastasia, however. Tried of being accused of fraud, Anastasia immigrated
to the United States in 1928 and took the name Anna Anderson. She still wished to prove that she was
Anastasia, though, and returned to Germany in 1933 to bring suit against her mother's family. There she
declaimed to the court, asserting that she was indeed Anastasia and deserved her inheritance. In 1957,
the court decided that it could neither confirm nor deny Anastasia's identity. Although we will probably
never know whether this woman was the Grand Duchess Anastasia, her search to establish her identity
has been the subject of numerous books, plays, and movies.
Some Russian peasants and workers___for social reform.

DUPLICITY:

King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette ruled France from 1774 to 1789, a time when the country was
fighting bankruptcy. The royal couple did not let France's insecure financial situation limit their
immoderate spending, however. Even though the minister of finance repeatedly warned the king and
queen against wasting money, they continued to spend great fortunes on their personal pleasure. This
lavish spending greatly enraged the people of France. They felt that the royal couple bought its luxurious
lifestyle at the poor people's expense. Marie Antoinette, the beautiful but exceedingly impractical queen,
seemed uncaring about her subjects; misery. While French citizens begged for lower taxes, the queen
embellished her palace with extravagant works of art. She also surrounded herself with artists, writers,
and musicians, who encouraged the queen to spend money even more profusely. While the queen's
favorites glutted themselves on huge feasts at the royal table, many people in France were starving. The
French government taxed the citizens outrageously. These high taxes paid for the entertainments the
queen and her court so enjoyed. When the minister of finance tried to stop these royal spendthrifts, the
queen replaced him. The intense hatred that the people felt for Louis
XVI and Marie Antoinette kept building until it led to the French Revolution. During this time of struggle
and violence (1789-1799), thousands of aristocrats, as well as the king and queen themselves, lost their
lives at the guillotine. Perhaps if Louis XVI and Marie
Antoinette had reined in their extravagant spending, the events that rocked France would not have
occurred.
The minister of finance tried to curb these royal ___.

ENFRANCHISE : SLAVERY

In nearly all human populations, a majority of individuals can taste the artificially synthesized chemical
phenylthiocarbonide (PTC). However, the percentage varies dramatically-from as low as sixty percent in
India to as high as ninety-five percent in Africa. That this polymorphism is observed in non-human
primates as well indicates a long evolutionary history which, although obviously not acting on PTC, might
reflect evolutionary selection for taste discrimination of other, more significant bitter substances, such as
certain toxic plants. A somewhat more puzzling human polymorphism is the genetic variability in earwax,
or cerumen, which is observed in two varieties. Among European populations, ninety percent of
individuals have a sticky yellow variety rather than a dry, gray one, whereas in northern China these
numbers are approximately the reverse. Perhaps like PTC variability, cerumen variability is an incidental
expression of something more adaptively significant. Indeed, the observed relationship between cerumen
and odorous bodily secretions, to which non-human primates and, to a lesser extent humans, pay
attention suggests that during the course of human evolution genes affecting body secretions, including
cerumen, came under selective influence.
Which of the following best summarizes the main idea of the passage?